Power Rangers vs Super Sentai(Mostly Samurai vs Shinkenger)

[Kamen Rider Aru]

I noticed that Shinkenger and Samurai's episodes are pretty much the same episode storyline just more comfortable for American audiences. It's like watching an Anime but live action with American actors. I use to dislike how Power Rangers was differen't from Super Sentai so I pretty much like Samurai with the episode scripts identical to the Japanese version.

 

[Sonicmann]

I've heard that Time Force's story is pretty much identical to Timeranger's, and Wild Force's story is the same as Gaoranger's.

As far as quality of Power Rangers seasons go I can't say much because I watched one episode of PR:Samurai and about laughed through the whole thing with it's awful acting and dialogue. I've heard Time Force is one of the better seasons though.

 

[lazycoconut]

Wild Force isn't a popular series with fans partly because of the way it followed Gaoranger so closely, I don't know how well Time Force went down (although personally I think it's a good series.) I think it's a problem that because Shinkenger is so popular with Sentai fans, we are judging PR Samurai very harshly in comparison - even me, I now appreciate Shinkenger a lot more than I did when it was airing, and even though it ran dry in the middle it did have some damn good action scenes and writing. At the moment though it looks like Saban's just playing it safe: adhering as closely as possible to the popular source material, with appropriate changes for a US audience and trying to go back to the original feel of MMPR. If it does well enough that we get a Goseiger or Gokaiger adaptation, they should feel free to play around with the source material a little more

 

[Kivat]

^ I wasn't following Gaoranger at that time, or knew what the hell Sentai was for that matter. So I really liked wild force, it got boring to me at times but that had nothing to do with the Sentai counterpart.

But apparently everyone else grew up with Sentai..

 

[lazycoconut]

I like Wild Force because I like Gaoranger and it seems natural that if I like one I'd like the other, since Wild Force is pretty much a completely straight adaptation of Gaoranger for an American audience. (Ditto for Timeranger and Time Force.) But Samurai, compared to Shinkenger, comes across as a little empty somehow - it is lacking that "something" that Shinkenger had and that audiences appreciated and liked. It's hard not to compare them relentlessly when you've seen both, but I guess if you hadn't watched Shinkenger it would be different. Samurai has had some good moments, it's enjoyable on its own terms

 

[GekiShinken]

The big difference between Shinkenger and Samurai is that Shinkenger actually has decent actors. Samurai's cast is just god awful. Blue and Yellow are the worst of the bunch easily, with Yellow easily being the worst actress on the show. Green acts like he's on a daytime soap, not a freaking kids tv show. Red...well he's really quite ugly (facially), which is surprising considering how many decent looking no-name actors are in Hollywood/LA hoping for their "big break".

At first I found it interesting to see how Samurai would adapt Shinkenger stories, but after only a few episodes i'm already bored with it. It just feels like a poor attempt at rehashing Shinkenger. I still turn the show on on Sunday mornings...but rarely watch much of it.

I guess my biggest gripe is this. California is home to hundreds of thousands of wanta-be actors and actresses, and yet this is who we end up with? MMPR with all it's cheese still had better acting than Samurai.

 

[lazycoconut]

I don't think the main cast of Shinkenger are stellar actors. Tori Matsuzaka isn't that great, you can tell that he was primarily a model before he got the role, and he's the one that gets most of the screen time. They did improve throughout the series, however, which gave us some really powerful scenes by the end. Jii's actor, Mitsuru Karahashi (Juzou) and Romi Park were excellent for supporting cast. But the off-screen camaraderie of the actors playing the Shinkengers came across on screen and added a lot to their performance. (Just from blog posts, stage show stuff, etc. they seem to be good friends in real life) So they had a really good team dynamic, whereas in Samurai, it's not really there - although the actors play friends/teammates on screen there is something very stilted about their acting

TL;DR: I don't think the Shinkengers' actors were that good. But they got better as the show went on, and their enthusiasm made up for a lot. The Samurai cast don't seem to be trying that hard (with the possible exception of Mike's actor) so their performance seems weak. But, like the Shinkengers they could improve by the end

 

[Black Fang]

I think the worst part about Samurai blindly copying Shinken is that they flat out tell you what they're doing. The credits list Yasuko Kobayashi as the writer of the "Japanese episode". Which pretty much translates to "We're just translating this show." At least with TF and WF's carbon copying they pretended to be their own show.

And speaking of copying: Samurai removed the brush mode from the phone..... and yet kept the drawing of characters before the morph. What the hell is that?? Why even bother with the Mojikara stuff?

 

[Raitaro]

One thing that i think samurai suffers from other than terrible acting is bulk and spike. Spike is one of the most annoying power rangers characters ever and has a very annpying laugh and distracts me from the show but this is a show directed towards children so spike might actually be amusing towards children. i think that wild force was a pretty close adaptation of gaoranger only wild force was way more preachy when it came to the environment

 

[GekiShinken]

One thing that i think samurai suffers from other than terrible acting is bulk and spike. Spike is one of the most annoying power rangers characters ever and has a very annpying laugh and distracts me from the show but this is a show directed towards children so spike might actually be amusing towards children. i think that wild force was a pretty close adaptation of gaoranger only wild force was way more preachy when it came to the environment

Amen to this. Bulk was clearly only added as a throw back to MMPR. With all due respect to them, they make no sense being on the show. In addition to this, Spike makes me want to scream every time I see him. I'd much prefer they got rid of Bulk and Spike and gave the core cast a little character development.